Plan For Reform: NYPD

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NYPD STEPS FORWARD

“We are at a pivotal moment in New York’s history—we have the need, motivation, and opportunity to imagine a city where cops are not just policing in New York’s communities but with the residents in each of those communities whose involvement is the as yet untapped force we need to continue to drive down crime and make every neighborhood as safe as every other…

“Today, four realities require change in the way the NYPD does its job.

  • We must continue to control and reduce crime, especially violent crime, throughout New York.
  • We must detect and deter terrorists, who are radically altering their strategies and recruitment techniques.
  • We must win back community support and build productive partnerships with citizens, especially in communities of color where resentment and fear of old police practices are most prevalent.
  • We must secure the safety and fair treatment of the men and women of the NYPD, many of whom have felt ill-prepared and undervalued…

“The plan, developed in collaboration with citizens and officers, will require everyone’s commitment to succeed. It will evolve and change, and it will not happen overnight. But when it does succeed, we will have created—together—a city unlike any other city in the world—safe and fair. Everywhere for everyone…” — William J. Bratton, Police Commissioner, City of New York.

 

New York’s plan is VERY encouraging. The right orientation, the right words. Just about everything in which I have been “preaching” during my career.

New York PD is our nation’s largest police department. It can lead the way. If police leaders are willing to implement Bratton’s proposals within their own departments police may, as a profession, collectively pull this off (restore trust and confidence) if they continue to press on and not give up. Now is the “carry-out” and “follow-through” in which tenacity must be mixed in.

What Bratton did not address, however, was the existence of a pervasive and chilling negative police culture that has been allowed to continue for over a century to infect the ranks of honest and committed police officers.
What must be overcome is the “warrior attitude,” a mentality committed to engaging the community as an enemy. Just as damaging is the continued existence of corruption and partiality within our nation’s police. These negative ATTITUDES and BEHAVIORS must be changed. Instead, the attitude and behavior of police must be to meet and model our nation’s values, the ideals of professional policing, and the needs of community members.
What will make this happen is leadership — both formal and informal. Every police officer can be a leader. The way forward is clear because the way forward supports and models fairness, honesty, protecting those not able to care for themselves, and the measured use of force in carrying out the police function.
But making this happen will not be just about the police and what they do, because real community-oriented policing involves and works with citizens; the men and women police should be proud to serve and guard.
  • Policing should be an honorable and trustworthy profession; let’s make it and keep it that way.

Read the entire NYPD plan HERE.

Published by improvingpolice

I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader calling for police improvement (for example, How To Rate Your Local Police, and with my wife, Sabine, Quality Policing: The Madison Experience). After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. At the present time, I serve a small church in North Lake (WI), east of Madison. Sabine and I have nine adult children, eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She is also a retired police officer and we both continue active lives.

2 Comments

  1. Chief, as you noted, Bratton has the right plan, but the real challenge lies with its implementation. It’s been said that giving the orders is only 10% of a solution, and the other 90% is seeing that they’re carried out.

    Like

    Reply

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